A non-profit organization dedicated to the eradication of all student loan debt through activism, education, and legislation;
because student loan debt is dangerous to the US economy and to the health and well-being of individual Americans and their families.
CRYN JOHANNSEN, Founder & Executive Director

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Note to reader: please listen to the video while reading the post. It will enhance your experience and turn you into an indentured educated rebel!

NOW IS THE TIME TO TAKE ACTION. DONATE TODAY. DO NOT WAIT. WE NEED TO START FIGHTING FOR OUR RIGHTS NOW.

Call it what you will - cheesy, poorly executed campiness, or whatever - but one thing holds true, at least for me, when it come to the epic film, The Legend of Billy Jean: itroused feelings and the understanding of what is at stake when you make the decision to do the right thing, even if that means losing everything. The best moment was when Billy Jean was in the mansion they'd decided to squat in (they found they weren't alone and a rich, nerdy boy was living there). In the cool, gated mansion, Billy Jean, the classic proletariat bandit, watches the famous 1957 version of Joan of Arc (written by one of my favorites, Graham Greene). The shot juxtaposes Billy's beautiful profile to the grainy black-and-white image of the Saint being tied to a stake and burned alive. Billy is even more determined to fight. Freeing herself from the vulnerable image of a pretty, poor, blonde girl, she takes shears and butchers her hair, and thus becomes the 1980s image of a saintly rebel.

Billy Jean was a hero to me when I was an angst-ridden kid in the late '80s.

She's inspired me again, and so has a feisty female reader. I'm kicking off a new campaign to raise money within a month to buy advertising space for the indentured educated class. The University of Phoenix and other insidious institutions put out bait for fresh catch every where. We're up against a massive campaign to convince people that pursuing higher education is worth it. But as the indentured educated class we have come to realize that it's a scam. That's why we need to spread the word and do it on search engines. I am asking everyone to donate between $25-$50 to this campaign (or anything you can pitch in). Plus, I urge you to spread the word. Tell your friends, your family, your neighbors. Tell everyone. Even just $5 will help! An advertising banner on a search engine will do wonders for this cause. So please donate today. Don't wait! Every single dime will go towards this banner, and we will see results.

Moreover, this money will help me finally becoming a 501. I need to do it immediately.

William - every penny counts! You're awesome. So is @Anonymous. This person is doing amazing things. Wow. I've already earned nearly $200 in a day. Let's keep this on a role. I'm going to install a meter at the top, so people can see what we've earned.

Cryn Johannsen

Cryn Johannsen, Founder and Executive Director of All Education Matters, Inc., is the author Solving the Student Loan Crisis: Dreams, Diplomas, and a Lifetime of Debt(New Insights Press, 2016; available now on Amazon inpaperback andKindle).

She has spent many years in academic environments, giving her an insider's understanding of the varying forms of educational institutions and how they function. Ms. Johannsen worked for an academic publishing company, but now advocates for individuals who are struggling or unable to pay off their student loan debt on Capitol Hill.

In addition to her previous employment, Ms. Johannsen has been a student at multiple levels at multiple institutions, beginning at a community college, graduating with honors from the University of Kansas, and receiving MAs from both the University of Chicago and Brown University (where she also participated in an exchange scholar program with Harvard). She is an experienced researcher and instructor, and has focused her own education on the study of History and the Social Sciences.

Ms. Johannsen is available to give talks and do workshops on this critical topic.

Ms. Johannsen's book has been reviewed by the New York Review of Books in Rana Foroohar's article "How the Financing of May Lead to Leader." In addition, intellectuals, such as Henry Giroux and Andrew Ross endorsed it.

This blog, All Education Matters, will be digitally archived by the Library of Congress in November of 2017.

About me

Author of Solving the Student Loan Crisis: Dreams, Diplomas & a Lifetime of Debt (New Insights Press) - now available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
Founder and Executive Director of All Education Matters(AEM), a 501(c)(4); I am a freelance journalist for The Huffington Post, The Loop 21, and Hypervocal. My work has appeared in USA Today, Truthout.org, The New England Journal of Higher Education, etc.
Recipient of journalism grant from the Economic Hardship and Reporting Project (EHRP) to cover a story about suicides and student loan debt (published by the Huffington Post and on the EHRP site; edited by Barbara Ehrenreich and Garvy Rivlin) - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/c-cryn-johannsen/student-loan-debt-suicides_b_1638972.html